Max Verstappen and George Russell traded verbal blows ahead of this weekend’s race over the incident which cost the Red Bull driver pole position for last weekend’s race.
The pair revealed details over how they presented their cases to the stewards which cast new light on the decision which left Verstappen incensed at his rival.The incident was one of the first cases of a driver being penalised as a consequence of rules F1 brought in just over a year ago enforcing a maximum time between the Safety Car Line Two (at the pit lane exit) and Safety Car Line One (at the pit lane entrance). Many drivers have exceeded the time limit over the course of the year but until last weekend none had picked up a significant penalty.
Exceeding the maximum time does not automatically trigger a penalty because a driver might find themselves forced to impede a rival in order to stay within the time. So for all the drivers who do exceed the time, often dozens per weekend, the stewards check video, timing and other positioning data to make sure they didn’t hold up another car.
In most cases the stewards have then ruled: “The drivers took appropriate actions to not impede other drivers, and in all cases, they slowed down significantly to allow other drivers to pass while giving those drivers a clear track. The stewards therefore determine that all drivers concerned did not drive ‘unnecessarily slowly’, and that they were above the maximum time because they took appropriate steps.”
This was what the stewards decided for 38 out of 40 cases they looked at in the sprint race qualifying session on Friday. However two drivers were given reprimands – Sergio Perez and Yuki Tsunoda.
In both cases the stewards noted they did not hold up any other drivers, but it showed how sensitive they were to drivers trying to exploit the compliance with the maximum delta time to cool their tyres more and gain an advantage. In Tsunoda’s case they pointed out he had an opportunity to comply with the time: “The driver could have closed the gap prior to reaching the last corner.”
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In Qatar the situation was more complicated than usual because teams were using a mixture of approaches to prepare their tyres. This was true of Verstappen, Russell and another driver who interacted with their cars at the crucial moment in Q3: Fernando Alonso.
The time each driver crossed the second Safety Car line prior to their final flying laps was crucial. Verstappen got their first with two minutes, 34 seconds left in Q3. As the maximum time was set at 1’40 – 100 seconds – he risked being investigated if he did not reach the first Safety Car line before the countdown clock showed 54 seconds remaining.
As Russell headed towards the line he saw Alonso emerging from the pits. “Get to the Safety Car line before Russell,” Aston Martin race engineer Chris Cronin urged his driver. He made it with two minutes, 21 seconds left in the session – and Russell crossed the line a second behind him.
“These guys are going to be making a gap, won’t they?” Russell accurately observed. If he and Alonso both used as much of the 100 seconds they were permitted to spend between the two Safety Car lines, he risked ending up too close to the Aston Martin at the start of his flying lap and losing time in its turbulent air. He therefore needed to stay close enough to Alonso to judge whether he could afford to stay behind the Aston Martin or overtake it before they started their laps.
It was in this scenario that the two drivers started to catch Verstappen. He had already let Norris past and did the same when Alonso closed on him.
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“Out of turn 10, I saw him in the mirror, flying,” Verstappen explained. “I’m like: ‘Okay, I’ll let him by, whatever, and then I’ll just sort myself out’.”
“You can let Fernando through,” Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase advised him, and the Red Bull made way at the exit of turn 10. He then began to tell him about Norris further ahead, and didn’t mention Russell, perhaps unaware that the Mercedes driver couldn’t afford to let Alonso get too far ahead.
While Verstappen was able to observe Alonso pushing hard in turn 10, he couldn’t see that Russell was keeping pace with the Aston Martin. Verstappen backed off to 93kph at that point on the track, Alonso rounded the corner at 138kph, Russell 133kph.
Verstappen was therefore surprised when Russell caught him in turn 11. “Everything slowed up in front, because there were quite a few cars,” he explained. Verstappen was close to Alonso at turn 11, while Norris had already exited turn 13. “I slowed down as well, because I don’t want to then speed up, [and] ruin their preparation as well.
“Then I see someone flying in my mirror, acting like the most dangerous situation just happened and he almost killed himself or something. It was unbelievable. And we were all on the slow lap. It’s not even like someone was on a fast lap.”
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However Russell pointed out that although he was not on a flying lap, he was trying to abide by the maximum time between the Safety Car lines. “I was following my delta time,” he explained. “We all have this lap time we have to follow.
“They also say if you’re driving slow, you need to move off the line.” Russell encountered Verstappen at the exit of turn 11.When they reached the first Safety Car lines to begin their final flying laps, only one of the trio was outside the 100-second limit. Alonso took 94 seconds, Russell pushed it almost to the limit, taking 98, and Verstappen took 118. That was what led the stewards to look into whether he had slowed “unnecessarily” during the lap, and found he had.
“I was just trying to prepare my lap,” Russell explained. “He was 20 seconds too slow on his lap. He was parked in the middle [of the racing line].”
Russell stressed that he had followed the letter of the law. “Max was very angry that I didn’t support him because he was expecting me to say ‘no problem, what Max did was okay’.
“It wasn’t ‘crazy dangerous’. Was the penalty harsh? Maybe it was a little bit harsh. But these are the rules, we all have the rules and we all have to follow it.
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“I would love to go 20 seconds slower on my preparation lap to get my tyres ready, but I didn’t.”
It’s not hard to see why Verstappen feels hard done by with his penalty. But if he had kept his position in the queue and not exceeded the maximum time the situation never would have arisen. And his repeated claim that by letting other cars past he was “trying to be nice” is slightly disingenuous – there was a clear performance advantage to be found by driving more slowly than the maximum time permitted.
But this row has moved well beyond the question of whether either driver was at fault and become rooted in a mutual dislike which may increase the prospect of more on-track acrimony in the last qualifying session of the season.
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2024 Qatar Grand Prix
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Constantijn Blondel
6th December 2024, 7:23
It’ll probably all turn into even more drama and aggro than it already is, before the next controversial thing happens, and everyone forgets about it again, but in my opinion, someone should forbid Toto and Horni to open their mouth for 24 hours, and then lock Max and George up in a room together and only let them out after they talk it out and shake hands …
… because, honestly, I can see where George is coming from and I can see where Max is coming from, and both have valid reasons to be annoyed, so maybe it’s just a case of **** happens, and let’s move on.
Doh
6th December 2024, 14:37
Max’s reason for being annoyed is “what George did was simply unacceptable” sounds entitled. What did he expect going so slow on the apex of one of the fastest corners on a fast track. Similar happened with Norris too in Japan. It does sound like max expected George to be on his side in the stewards room and then he got even more upset.
It’s been 5-6 days and max has spoken about it at least twicé, yet he haant actually said what russel did that was so unacceptable that he had to attack his character (a redbull trait it seems). So he went to that extent to attack him on that way yet didn’t even really explain what russel did that was so bad.
Sounds like either an idiot or he’s just taking advantage of a situation to give himself steam for next season. That’s how daft it seems.
If you’re going to accuse some money so harshly at least try and have something concrete, some facts to back it up lol
Doh
6th December 2024, 14:38
Max’s reason for being annoyed is “what George did was simply unacceptable” sounds entitled. What did he expect going so slow on the apex of one of the fastest corners on a fast track. Similar happened with Norris too in Japan. It does sound like max expected George to be on his side in the stewards room and then he got even more upset.
It’s been 5-6 days and max has spoken about it at least twicé, yet he haant actually said what russel did that was so unacceptable that he had to attack his character (a redbull trait it seems). So he went to that extent to attack him on that way yet didn’t even really explain what russel did that was so bad.
Sounds like either an id-i-ot or he’s just taking advantage of a situation to give himself steam for next season. That’s how daft it seems.
If you’re going to accuse some money so harshly at least try and have something concrete, some facts to back it up lol
Diez Cilindros (@diezcilindros)
6th December 2024, 7:29
I disagree with the penalty, but it is not a case of not complying with the delta time. It is a case of “driving unnecessarily slowly”, with may sound similar, but it is not the same.
The article Max breached was the same Alonso breached in Australia. In his case, the word “erratically” was of application; in this case, “unnecessarily slowly”.
japioooo
6th December 2024, 9:00
The action of Russell looked more like erratic driving than it was unnecessary slow by Verstappen.
Very strange penalty which is going to keep the stewards busy, especially at tracks like Monaco.
Ludewig
6th December 2024, 9:26
@diezcilindros
The Alonso incident was completely different, because it was during the race, and Alonso seemed to have no reason to drive like that other than to unsettle George by driving slow in unexpected places.
Max actually did have a reason to go slow, to build a gap. Fact is that this explanation has been accepted dozens of times during the qualifying for Qatar alone, as well as during other races. The precedent is only that you cannot hinder a driver on a fast lap, but George was not on a fast lap.
The issue with this application of the rules is that it is impossible for drivers to predict that other drivers may speed up suddenly during a slow lap, so it can become a way for drivers to try to get other driver’s penalized. Do we really want F1 to turn into football/soccer where players commonly try to get others penalized by taking intentional dives?
PS. There was absolutely nothing erratic about Max building a gap. In fact, it is more erratic not to.
SteveP
6th December 2024, 12:43
Another one of those “I’ve read the rules and this might be on the line, but I don’t think it’s over it” from Max, and the stewards taking the stance: “We’ve read the rules too, and we do think you were over the line. This is your penalty…”
Thou shalt not argue with the stewards…
BTW. By what criteria do you judge that this was not a fast lap, with a faster lap to follow?
osnola
6th December 2024, 13:07
It was a cooldown lap. Both drivers aknowledged this.
ludewig
6th December 2024, 14:39
My criterium is what is fact.
notagrumpyfan
6th December 2024, 7:31
I would automatically penalise every driver who drives slower than the maximum time. Always.
Maybe extend the time a bit, but keep the rule simple. It’s up to the teams to find a good slot to put their drivers in.
The stewards made it difficult for themselves by always accepting excuses as long as a car on a fast lap was not impeded, but decided to stop that practice now.
Russell made a mistake here as well. He always thinks that he is as smart as Sainz on track, but oftentimes fooling himself. He should not have complained about Verstappen driving a mere 30 kph slower than him on a slow lap and just overtake the guy on the next straight. It might have gained him a statistical pole position (and a ‘not winning from pole’), but by crying wolf (he should have stuck to crying with Wolff) he will not help himself in the long run.
Ludewig
6th December 2024, 9:29
It would at least be a lot fairer than these arbitrary penalties based on the nationality of the involved drivers.
However, the consequence would be that instead of slowing down to build a gap, we would see a lot more overtake attempts, so qualifying would become more erratic and dangerous.
notagrumpyfan
6th December 2024, 10:10
If not (significantly) making it more dangerous, I would be in favour of that as well. Picking the right time to start a quali lap is part of the game as well.
PS I don’t buy this ‘nationality’ thing other than for discussions on this site and other Social Media channels.
ludewig
6th December 2024, 14:41
It’s pretty obvious that they apply the rules differently depending on the drivers involved.
drmouse (@drmouse)
6th December 2024, 14:04
I agree with you. The drivers could always do a slightly faster out lap to give them margin for avoiding impeding other drivers.
But the problem is they won’t. They will always push the limits, and then they’ll whine that they couldn’t get out of the way because they’d exceed the delta or vice versa. As with track limits, they’ll do what they want, compassion about the punishment, and make the sport look bad.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
6th December 2024, 14:46
@drmouse
Problem is that the reason they drive as slowly as they do on out lap sis because the tires demand it because of how temperature sensitive they are and because of how high starting tire pressures are by regulation now.
Go back to the days before the Pirelli’s when the Bridgestones & Michelin’s were around and they were less temperature sensitive with a wider operating window and no mandated tire pressures limits as drivers never had to drive as slowly on out laps/cool down laps to manage or prepare them.
With the current tires if you drive a bit too fast on the out lap then you start the lap with tire temps & therefore pressures higher than ideal and not only start the lap with less grip but also run the risk of running out of tire before the end of the lap on some circuits.
The whole problem stems from how unfit for purpose the Pirelli tires have been. You just need to go back and look at the pre Pirelli qualifying sessions to see how the way the Pirelli tires have been is the cause of many of the issues that have popped up in qualifying since 2011.
And then the hybrid management has also added to the issues as you also need to drive a certain way to recharge the batteries on the warm up laps. Push too hard on the warm up lap and maybe you start the lap with not enough battery to have full deployment over the hot lap.
Osnola
6th December 2024, 7:42
So again. Fia creates a new directive, fails to follow up on it and is inconsistent in giving penaltys.
During the season literaly hundreds of infractions occured and were never penalised.
Now we not only have a penalty of one essential griddrop but also a point on the license.
MacLeod (@macleod)
6th December 2024, 8:00
They should remove those rules as clearly they are hard to follow and gives the stewards way to much work.
Maybe just 1 rule you can’t overtake in slow laps is much easier ….
It’s clear Max already let 2 drivers past slowing down because of that George should just drive around him or stay behind Max this is just because of a stupid rule …
An Sionnach
6th December 2024, 8:22
If they wanted to penalise a driver for the first time for this they could have fined him and issued a warning that sporting penalties would follow. I’m not sure how the drivers would react to this, but I’d guess they wouldn’t be impressed. In addition to the drop, a penalty point was involved. It’s still hard to comprehend.
The row is now personal and it seems a shame for this to happen over such a thing. I’m not happy that George pushed for the penalty when he weakly defends it by saying it might be harsh, but them’s the rules. It really seems not worth it. George is a wally. I’ll leave the arguing to them. It would be best to move on. If George doesn’t do such things again Max should forget about it.
Miguel Bento (@miguelbento)
6th December 2024, 8:40
These stupid rules didn’t exist some years ago, everything was simpler and there were no issues. Why did they come up with them?
Biskit Boy (@sean-p-newmanlive-co-uk)
6th December 2024, 9:14
The rules were bought in to reduce the likelihood of an accident by reducing the time spent driving slowly and reducing the delta or closing speed between cars on a hot lap and those not. In general I think it works, but its obvious some tweaking is needed.
SteveP
6th December 2024, 11:42
Root cause? The criminally small operational temperature window of the Pirelli tyres.
On top of that, teams trying to generate situations for the drivers where they are effectively the only driver in that section of track so they can drive at exactly the right speed to get the dire Pirelli tyres operating at their best.
Since that means some drivers are slow where others are fast, the regulation is to minimise the number of incidents where fast meets slow.
Russell was going at the optimum speed to do a prep lap for the Mercedes, and Verstappen was doing something else – but doing it on the fast line that Russell needed.
Was Russell able to do different without stepping away from that optimum pace? No.
Was Verstappen able to do his slow speed on a different bit of tarmac? Yes.
Is that impeding another competitor? Yes.
The discussion of whether it should be a penalty is not the correct one, the discussion should be about whether a single grid place is correct.
osnola
6th December 2024, 13:14
Strange discrepancy
thats only a interpretation. We do not know the optimum preparation for each team
Moving from the line would result in picking up dirt and as such hampers his preparation.
Its very normal drivers line up to do the preparationlap. If you want to pass someone on a preparation lap you have to pass him. The gentleman’s agreement was until now give each other room to do that.
George is no gentleman ( he probably thinks otherwise) but seems to be a rat.
He however picked the wrong fight, thats obvious.
Palindnilap (@palindnilap)
6th December 2024, 9:05
Driving 18 seconds too slow for letting three cars past seems a lot, when you are free to catch back time on other parts of the track. It sounds indeed like playing to the rules tolerance in order to get an advantage. Nothing serious with that, but nothing wrong with complaining about it either.
D
6th December 2024, 9:21
Silly rules + silly drivers = silly situations
Silly situations + silly stewards = silly penalties
G (@unklegsif)
6th December 2024, 9:46
Of more concern to me that the initial “crime” for which the penalty was administered, or the penalty itself, is whether or not if true, Verstappen’s subsequent comments regarding heads and f*&<king walls, will be looked into by the Stewards or MBS and his latest moral crusade
G
osnola
6th December 2024, 13:16
Verstappen already denied that were his words. So another lie from “gentleman george”?
SteveP
6th December 2024, 15:58
Someone is bearing false witness, but since the first reports of the threatening comment came from journo’s rather than Russell, we have a doubt.
The style of comment fits with the forthright and somewhat blunt style we are told is the norm in the Netherlands (although I can’t say any Netherlands residents I’ve met in the last few decades were that way)
All-in-all, I’m inclined to go with the idea that Russell has the best description of the encounter.
zaphod
6th December 2024, 10:06
Why is that rule invented? To avoid dangerous situations where people on a flying lap encountered a bunch of slow driving cars. Like what happened in Monza all the time where drivers wanted a slipstream, forcing drivers on a fast lap to weave through traffic.
In this case all cars were on a preparation lap. Nobody was pushing, george was informed multiple times about the slower cars ahead an could see them. He would not be compromised if he slowed down too behind Max. But decided to act like he had to make an avoidance move.
M2X
6th December 2024, 11:10
Will Buxton has stated Max isn’t the first to have commented on the two faces of Russell.
Then again one shouldn’t be surprised from a Toto apprentice, whom himself brought a lawyer to Abu Dhabi 2021 into the stewards meeting.
And then they are surprised people in the sport dislike them.
SteveP
6th December 2024, 12:56
Which is rich coming from Will Buxton.
There’s a reason a lot of the other journo’s don’t like him.
When the RD himself is making things up and breaking rules, it’s best to have an unimpeachable witness.
osnola
6th December 2024, 13:17
Bringing your own lawyer is not really introducing an objective observer ..lol
tielemst
6th December 2024, 11:14
I do agree with Max here, he absolutely shouldn’t be penalised in the penultimate race for something that all drivers have done all year. Change the rule at the beiginning of the season, communicate it clearly and (for crying out loud) be strict and consistent in follow up and penalties.
And although I don’t like the fact that George slapped a penalty on him for something that happened in a slow lap during qualy and may have suckerpunched him, the irony of Max racing with the maximum exploitation of the rulebook and now getting penalised for something like this is not completely lost on me :-)
SteveP
6th December 2024, 11:27
@Keith
Their, they’re, there
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
6th December 2024, 12:42
I do love how everyone defends their driver but the interesting thing to me is that VER commented that NOR, ALO, and RUS were all flying on the lap yet their speed was in danger of not meeting the minimum time. So they aren’t flying, they are traveling at the speed the rules dictate they drive at to comply.
SteveP
6th December 2024, 13:02
The unspoken portion of you comment is that anyone who is travelling at a speed that is significantly slower (not ‘flying’) is patently not compliant
There’s a penalty for that, and Max only got 1/3 of it. Is that bias?
tielemst
6th December 2024, 15:14
It can be if you choose to penalize one driver and let others go unpunished.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
6th December 2024, 14:35
The more I learn about the penalty the more justified it appears to me.
1. Verstappen was 18.5 seconds over his delta time for no justified reason. He didn’t care about the rule at all. (He didn’t have to let those cars go through in the first place).
2. Him and Russel were on a flying lap. (apparently for the stewards a cool down lap counts as a flying lap)
3. Verstappen didn’t leave the racing line, because he didn’t want his tires to be dirty (yet Russell had exactly to do that to get passed Verstappen).
They implemented the delta time rule to prevent dangerous situations with cars having significant speed differences, but turned a blind eye on any incident before that. It’s about time they start to enforce it, otherwise they can (should?) drop it completely. Yes, Russell can be a drama queen and for Verstappen it’s a bit annoying, but better now when it’s not meaningful than at the beginning of next year. Now everyone knows what to expect.
Ludewig
6th December 2024, 14:44
It’s not actually a rule, but rather a guideline, that is routinely broken by all drivers.
I don’t care if they call it that, it simply isn’t one.
So why would Max be obliged to dirty his tires rather than George? This is only an argument if you are biased for a certain driver.
As far as I can tell, you are merely convinced because you constructed a very one-sided narrative.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
6th December 2024, 15:59
It’s in the race directors notes and precises article 33.4. It’s acceptable to brake it when you stay around the delta time at most of the parts of the circuit and only slow down significantly to let other drivers through that are faster laps.
The stewards really are not particularly interested about how you, me, Verstappen or Russell care about the rules.
Verstappen is already in breach of the maximum lap time which (as the race director stated) should only be breached in case you let a faster driver through. So it’s really in his and his teams responsibilities not to be an obstacle. If he didn’t want to make his tires dirty he could have let Russell by on a straight, but he didn’t pay attention for a short moment.
I don’t care whether its Russell or Verstappen. I’d say the same if they were the other way around. I’m just annoyed by drivers driving unnecessarily slowly because I think it’s plain dangerous and an accident waiting to happen. If they really feel the need to go that slowly they need to be aware of faster drivers coming from behind and respect their right of way according to the race directors notes and article 33.4. If they don’t I’m more than happy they get a penalty.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
6th December 2024, 16:45
That looks so uncomfortable. Will have to check this out. Not sure the words can do it justice.
crgboy001
6th December 2024, 17:33
I’d like to point out George himself exceeded the delta time in Q1 and Q2. You can see on FIA’s document 45. So I don’t know why he was so worried in Q3 to follow his delta…
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
7th December 2024, 8:22
That’s also true of others who reached Q3, such as Hamilton and the Ferrari drivers. This is because it’s far easier to avoid having to let another car through in Q3 because there are fewer cars than in Q1 and Q2.